Rockin' the R Mountain

On Saturday we decided to be adventurous and outdoorsy and spontaneous- we decided to hike the "R" Mountain. It is an old dormant volcano mountain outside of town and we had driven by and around it a few times. Honestly, the kids (mostly Owen) were a little afraid of the prospects of hiking a "volcano" and all that conjures up in the imagination. In his little mind it could blow at any second sending us running for our lives from flowing lava. When we convinced him that was not going to happen we set off on our little adventure.

Just hiking from the parking lot to the foot of the mountain had us winded (ok, so maybe we're a little out of shape) and we were worried we had no hope of making it to the top.

Rex looks cute in pink, don't you think?

They even have chains at one part because it is fairly slippery and steep.

We saw this rock and dubbed it "Rock With a Hole In It"

We thought this one looked like a skull, do you see it?

We saw cool caves. Which I'm sure have hosted many a make-out session.
At about this spot of the hike we met a nice young jogger running down the mountain. Kris asked him if he had just run up the mountain and was now coming down and he said, "yes, but I forgot my camera." And then he continued jogging down. I didn't know if he was joking or if he was really going back down to get his camera but wouldn't you know that a few minutes after we got to the top he got to the top too, again. Wow. He was the one who took the picture of all of us at the top. Then he ran around the rim of the volcano and back down. Holy cow.


We saw amazing views.


This is the "bowl" of the volcano, which the kids were sorely disappointed in,
I believe they were expecting to see bubbling lava inside.

How's that sock taste? (Owen is too funny)

Ahhh, the taste of sweet success! We felt like we were on top of the world!

Ok, so we know it's not like hiking the Tetons or something,

but we were pretty proud of ourselves

and maybe next year it WILL be the Tetons!